PETA pickets over treatment of circus animals

Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey circus is back in town, and a handful of animal rights activists marked the show’s arrival with a small protest outside the DCU Center yesterday afternoon.

People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals is urging people not to attend any circuses that use live animals as entertainment, and is particularly worried about the treatment of baby elephants. The organization alleges, for instance, that trainers mistreat the animals by using ropes and hooked rods on them.

Ringling Bros.’ parent company, Virginia-based Feld Entertainment, last year paid the U.S. Department of Agriculture $270,000, the largest civil penalty ever assessed against an exhibitor under the Animal Welfare Act, according to the USDA. The payment was part of an agreement to resolve animal welfare issues raised in inspection reports of Ringling Bros. between 2007 and 2011, but the company never admitted to any violations. The agreement also required the company to do more training about the Animal Welfare Act and have someone in charge of compliance.

Since then, the USDA has inspected Ringling Bros. shows three times, and Feld’s Center for Elephant Conservation in Florida twice, and did not find any compliance problems, according to David Sacks, a USDA spokesman. The center is also owned by Feld Entertainment, the parent company of Ringling Bros.

Stephen Payne, a spokesman for Feld, said they have paid the money and met the agreement’s other requirements. Trainers, he said, use ropes and “guides” on baby elephants. He described the guides as 2 to 3 feet long, made of wood or fiberglass, with a hook on the end. Animal rights activists call them bull hooks.

“It’s a long, well-established husbandry tool,” Mr. Payne said. Contrary to what PETA alleges, electric shocks are not used in training or performances, and are only ever used in case of emergency, he said.

Hayden Hamilton of California, a PETA campaigner who was one of four people outside the DCU Center shortly after noon yesterday, said she doubts Ringling Bros. has improved its practices since last year and referred people to a PETA website, www.ringlingbeatsanimals.com.

“There’s nothing natural about the circus for the elephants or the other animals,” Ms. Hamilton said. She and PETA material online noted the confinement, travel and noise involved.

Activists try to attend all of Ringling Bros.’ shows. Mr. Payne said they seem to show up mainly in the Northeast and California.

Last night, Ringling Bros. held an animal open house for media at 5 p.m. and for ticket holders at 5:30 p.m. at the DCU Center. Tomorrow, there will be an “elephant brunch” at which the general public can watch the elephants be fed bread from Widoff’s and fruits and vegetables from Wegmans.

Mr. Payne said the open house was not done in response to animal welfare concerns; it is simply “an added option.”